The Monkey Buffet Festival is on the last Sunday of November. It is a great day for monkeys in Thailand(泰国). The festival has a history of twenty-five years. People there think monkeys can bring good luck to them. So, to thank monkeys, they have this special festival.

    On that day every year, people put lots of fruit, vegetables, cakes and even drinks on the tables outside. They are all for monkeys. Many people come to see the monkeys on that day.

    During the festival, there are a lot of interesting activities about monkeys. Young people always dress like monkeys. And they sing and dance and play some music on the street.

    Monkeys always live in groups. Most of them live in the trees. They are good at running and jumping. They eat fruit, vegetables, flowers and birds' eggs. Monkeys are clever. Do you think so?

    A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held a sign which said, "I am blind. Please help me."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized(认出) his footsteps and asked, "Are you the one who changed my sign in the morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said, but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it."

    Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    My parents used to tell me how important school was for me, but I didn't think so. I paid little attention to it.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One day, when I walked past a mobile phone store, I saw an advertisement on its door. It was hiring(雇佣) new workers! I went into the shop to ask for the job. The manager looked at me for a few seconds from head to foot, then asked," Do you have a high school diploma(文凭)?"He continued,"{#blank#}2{#/blank#}”

    I felt so ashamed(感到难为情的) and uncomfortable that I didn't know what to say, so I just turned around and left. I could not fall asleep that night.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}I must go to school or I can't do anything without a good education, "I said to myself silently. I never went back to the store again until I finished my study and got a diploma.

    Everything looked the same when I returned to the store. However, compared with last time{#blank#}4{#/blank#}I showed my diploma to the manager. He looked at it and said," Great, you are in.'

    Now I am still working in the same store. With this experience, I always advise people to attend school.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Now I am not worried about my future because I'm still reading and learning books about my work in my free time

    Today almost everyone has a smart phone booths are out of date and seem to be useless. But cities like Shanghai are trying to bring the old phone booths to life.

    Shanghai will make changes to 263 phone booths in Xuhui District. The Library Booth is one of the six new kinds of booths, offering 60 booths for people to borrow and read. Another kind allows users to listen to audiobooks( 有声书)and even record their own voices.

    Shanghai is not the only city trying to save the old phone booths. London cares about them even more, because the red booths have long been a special scene in London since the 1930s when they were painted all red. In recent years London has come up with many ideas to help phone booths stay useful. The UK company British Telecom has added screens and free WiFi to some booths. Users can use them to surf online and search for maps and weather reports. The company also allows people to rent(租)some booths to change them as they want to. Since 2009, more than 1,500 phone booths have been turned into flower shops, mini-cafes, art museums and even shower rooms.

    In New York City, three phone booths in Time Square are turned into places for immigrant(移民) voices. When visitors pick up the phone, they can listen to oral(口述) histories of immigration from the newest New Yorkers. They can also open the books inside the booth to know more about the storytellers. Or they can share a part of their own stories if they wish.

    Brazil made phone booths works of art. Sao Paulo paired 100 artists with 100 phone booths. Some artists painted on the booths, others made them sculptures- one was shaped like a brain and another wore a pair of shoes.

    Phone booths are finding creative ways to live on. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.

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